


The Power Method

by Bitenomnom



Series: Mathematical Proof [36]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Gen, John Watson's Blog, John is a sadistic bastard, Johnlock goggles optional, Mathematics, arguments relating to milk, but mostly only because Sherlock makes him that way, mysterious deleted comments, petty revenge, reference to red pants, sock index
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-09
Updated: 2012-11-09
Packaged: 2017-11-18 07:19:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/558335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bitenomnom/pseuds/Bitenomnom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Personal Blog of Dr. John H. Watson, 12 January. </p><p>	If you’ll believe it, there is a method to my madness. By “my madness” what I’m actually referring to is <i>Sherlock’s</i> madness, only he won’t admit to it, so I’ll take credit. It’s going to seem like I’m exaggerating, but I’m not, so bear with me.</p><p>	The last time I messed up Sherlock’s sock index, he punished me by “doing an experiment” that involved leaving <i>every</i> bloody carton of milk I bought out on the counter overnight. For two weeks. </p><p>And when you’re living with Sherlock, it’s kind of impossible not to stoop to his level every now and again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Power Method

**Author's Note:**

> There's not a lot of math in this, partly because we only barely started covering this topic in class (and we really didn't do anything else worth writing about...) and partly because I started writing this at about 5:30am and I really, really want to go to sleep.
> 
> That being said, this one was a great deal of fun. (In case you couldn't tell.)
> 
> This is secretly a red pants story in disguise. It is also about laundry, but is completely different from yesterday's story about laundry.

The power method is used in order to approximate the dominant eigenvalue (that is, the largest eigenvalue in magnitude) and the corresponding eigenvector of a matrix. This is done by constructing a sequence of scalars and vectors and hoping that the sequence of scalars approaches the eigenvalue, and the sequence of vectors approaches the eigenvector, as the iterations go to infinity. By modifying this method slightly, one can also use it to find all of the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of a matrix.

 

***

**The Personal Blog of Dr. John H. Watson**

  
12 th January

**A Power Struggle**

 

            If you’ll believe it, there is a method to my madness.

            And yes, Sherlock, I’m putting this where you can read it ‘cause I know you’re going to ignore it anyway, or probably try to avoid it, or something, but the great thing is, you won’t really be able to.

            By “my madness” what I’m actually referring to is _Sherlock’s_ madness, only he won’t admit to it, so I’ll take credit.

            See, Sherlock has this sock index. (That’s his name for it, by the way, not mine.)

            He’s really, _really_ particular about it. I mean, the socks he’s owned for three months are closer to the front of the drawer than the socks he bought last week because they are technically one shade lighter. (The color is the least saturated in the front of the drawer, the most in the back. Yes, he explained color saturation to me when I tried doing him a favor and putting his socks away once. No, I did not listen to the full explanation about the components of the dyes, mostly because I was actually running late for a bloody date.)

            It’s going to seem like I’m exaggerating, but I’m not, so bear with me.

            The last time I messed up Sherlock’s sock index, he punished me by “doing an experiment” that involved leaving _every_ bloody carton of milk I bought out on the counter overnight. For two weeks.

            Right, well, here’s the thing about that.

            Sherlock may be a childish git, but that was a pretty nasty bout of petty vengeance even for him. Therefore, I deduced that the sock index is of great importance to Sherlock.

            The other thing about that is, when you’re living with Sherlock, it’s kind of impossible not to stoop to his level every now and again.

            So after yesterday, when Sherlock actually (and don’t believe what he tells you, the dye was _not_ mislabeled, he definitely bought it last week and has had it sitting ominously on the bookshelf since that time, I _knew_ I should’ve binned it) dumped red dye into the entire load of laundry he so _kindly_ volunteered to wash (which was mostly mine, by the way, yes, and suspiciously none of his socks or nice trousers or dress shirts were in there), I decided to take appropriate retaliatory action. I put my plan to work this morning.

            I scrambled his sock drawer.

            And I mean _thoroughly_.

            I may have also put a few of my dyed articles of clothing in amongst the socks.

            The best thing about it isn’t just watching Sherlock fret over sorting his socks back out, it’s actually that we started working on one _hell_ of a case yesterday (serial killer; as Sherlock would say, “it’s Christmas”…). But Sherlock can’tdo a single damn thing until his sock drawer is all sorted out and his index is returned to normal. It’s one of those…Sherlock…things.

            I did such a fantastic job that Sherlock has spent the past three hours working his drawer out again. I’m not sure if he knows that I also put in some brand-new socks, and also may have accidentally bleached some of his laundry this morning. He may or may not have figured out that I put in a few single, lonely socks, and binned the others in a skip five streets down (okay, three different skips, but they’re all kind of close together)  while he was busy making a racket on his violin at lunchtime, just before I told him about the…incident.

He _definitely_ doesn’t know that I rigged up his drawer so that when he shuts it, part of the bottom is going to fall out and his socks are going to drop into the drawer below, which contains, stacked innocently beneath his nice neat trousers resting gently overtop of them, petri dishes of _all the sodding sour milk he’s responsible for._

            I would definitely know if he’d found that, because he would have made some sort of really viscerally pleasing choking, screaming sound.

            Here’s the thing, Sherlock.

            You keep me from putting milk in my tea for one more morning? I _will_ strike again.

            Trust me, this was the most _merciful_ option I could think of. There’s something about solving serial murders that really sparks one’s creative energy, you know?

            … _Ah_. There’s the shouting. Brilliant.

            Oh, and by the way, since I’ve had a few hours now that you haven’t, what with you up there sorting out your sock index, Sherlock, I’ve had a glance over the cipher you were working out and looked up a few locations of factories and phoned Lestrade for some more details to confirm my theory, so if you don’t mind my saying, and maybe when you get a good look at it you’ll agree: pink flamingo lawn ornament, misplaced olive oil, tweny-seven halves, Portuguese.

 

**19 comments**

[deleted]  
 **Sherlock Holmes** 12 January 13:03

[deleted]  
 **Sherlock Holmes** 12 January 13:04

OMG!!  
John, you need to see this, I’m calling you. For your own safety.  
 **Harry Watson** 12 January 13:51

SHERLOCK.  
 **John Watson** 12 January 13:53

SHERLOCK HOLMES YOU DELETE THAT NOW OR SO HELP ME  
 **John Watson** 12 January 13:53

One of us has a loaded gun on his person and it’s not you. _Delete it._  
 **John Watson** 12 January 13:56

[deleted]  
 **John Watson** 12 January 13:57

[deleted]  
 **Sherlock Holmes** 12 January 13:59

I don’t know why you kept buying the milk. After the first two times I expected you to stop. And I _was_ growing bacteria, for the Grabisch case.  
 **Sherlock Holmes** 12 January 15:23

Incidentally, that hardly qualifies as a deduction, John.  
 **Sherlock Holmes** 12 January 15:24

Especially because I plainly stated _why_ the index is important. To you. Directly.  
 **Sherlock Holmes** 12 January 15:25

Being told something and then repeating it _isn’t_ a deduction, John.  
 **Sherlock Holmes** 12 January 15:27

What was all that fuss upstairs? If you smashed a wall again I’m deducting it from your rent.  
 **Mrs Hudson** 12 January 16:39

Now _that’s_ a proper deduction. Well done, Mrs. H. (Don’t worry; no walls smashed.)  
 **Sherlock Holmes** 12 January 17:08

Thank you, Sherlock.  
 **Mrs Hudson** 12 January 18:30

Sounds like I missed something.  
 **Bill Murray** 12 January 22:09

Trust me, you don’t want to know.  
 **John Watson** 12 Janurary 23:45

LOL, he’s actually right, you really don’t.  
 **Harry Watson** 13 January 01:04

Fresh milk in the refrigerator, John.  
 **Sherlock Holmes** 13 January 03:14

**Author's Note:**

> [Slight continuation in comments.](http://archiveofourown.org/comments/1681296)
> 
> Continued in [Revenge of the Power Method](http://archiveofourown.org/works/562674).


End file.
